Sysex presets and midi-ox

[theroxy4]

Hi all, new here so please help if you can!
Having problems sending the preset banks to my Andro.
I'm using Midi-ox 7
Andro system 1.40.12
I have set the A6 to recieve sysex.
I have set path to bank Card 1 (also tried user1).
A6 recieves sysex.
When I now change bank A6 hangs and refuses to load until card is reinitialised (or reset user 1 bank if sent there).
The card works fine in normal use saving programs.

Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks
theroxy4

[nickelodeus]

Hi....

Well I have fiddled around endlessly with both midi-ox and cubase to get sysex to and from the A6 and they seem to behave differently every time!

Your problem does ring a bell actually - and i hope this could help you. I seem to remember the last time i used midi-ox to get some sounds into the A6 I had a problem. I started the transfer as before and the A6 screen said that sysex was in progress...but then midi-ox sort of timed out and the A6 hung until i turned off/on again. When I checked the bank, only 2 or 3 of the sounds had changed.

After ENDLESS fiddling I discovered some timeout settings tucked away in a menu in midiox and set the length to the max or at least 100 times wht it was set to by default (ugh?!) and it ran smoothly. It seems the midi-ox simply wasn;t prepared for the 2.5 - 3 mins it takes to load prog bank into the A6.

Might be worth just poking through some menus in midi-ox and making sure its not set to anything daft.....

nic

[theroxy4]

Hi Nickelodus

Thanks for the advice! I will settle down on my next full day off, with a stiff drink and start fiddling with those settings!

Have you tried the other banks? What do you think?

Love the A6 more by the day (only had her a short time)! So much easier to find new sounds than my Waldorf XTK. All my other gear must feel left out in the cold!

Will post my findings here, if i come up with any other conclusions.

Thanks again,
theroxy4

[theroxy4]

can't find a solution to this problem, and Alesis have never replied to my emails.
Would anyone be prepared to load the other programs onto a card if I sent them one?
Thanks
theroxy4

[sunny pedaal]

would like to help you out on it, but too busy awaiting our second child!
isn't it possible to use any other sequenser program to send the sysex from like cakewalk or cubase. or any other sysex able program ( freeware or shareware should do the job. does it also give you problems while loading single patches??
i myself use a mac so have no experience in midiox , maybe somebody also on b.e. code 404 might have encountered this problem :
http://mailman.code404.com/pipermail/a6/
i 'm sorry i can help you no further on the moment , guess after a few "month's " more time is available for me to encounter your request
if the problem regarding midiox is solved let us know how , seems more people had problems making it work so...

[nickelodeus]

Hey.....

Yes, I'd do that for you. However, like Sunny said....you just need to try some different software routes. Do you have any sequencer software: cubase/logic/cakewalk/protools etc? If you do it would be worth your while trying though one of these programs OR checking something like www.download.com for a shareware/freeware midi utility that isn't midi-ox.

Also...a couple of very important points to bear in mind here:

1) How midi software behaves greatly depends on what soundcard and midi interface you have.

2) (....and this is a bit difficult to swallow at first.... but VERY relevant) every time you come up against a problem like this; finding out a way to solve it yourself (of course asking other people's advice is great!) teaches you soooo much about the synth. I have learnt so much in the past few weeks about the a6 (thanks sunny ).

Anyways....that aside.....let us know how you get on
Nic

[theroxy4]

Thanks for the replys,

I have tried cubase 5, cubasis, A6 banker so far, with the same result. I have tried both my cards. I have loaded to and from my other synths and they all work (but now my Waldorf XTK refuses to save programs, but thats another story!).

This is my second A6, as the first one had to be returned - faulty from day one. The funny thing is that I could send and receive banks and programs with that one, using the settings I've tried. This says to me that the problem is most likely to be with my current A6 or its settings.
I have printed the very useful A6 hints and tips pages and found how to enter a hidden screen to alter how the A6 copes with incoming sysex.

Nickelodeus, you make a good point, and i fully intend to keep trying. Probably feeling a little disheartened at the moment as I seem to be spending more time sorting out problems then actually making music!

I start my nurses training later this year (need more money to afford a bigger house with a larger music room!). Maybe I should consider a new direction for my studio, such as an Oasis and computer only? What am I saying, I could never sell any gear - just add to it!

Thanks anyway. Sorry about the rant, think i'm cracking up!

[nickelodeus]

Hey Roxy...

I totally understand you there. Thats exactly how i've felt over the last few weeks...really at the end of my tether (see previous posts!)....and I have no doubt that I'll feel that way again ast some point soon (.....just a matter of time!).

Good luck mate....keep going with it.....and if you need anything just holler
Nic

[sunny pedaal]

one more question:
is it possible to send ( to start) one patch to your computer from the a6 and is it received properly showing a size of 1024 kb??
my guess is to start from there and thereafter trying banks and or receiving patches or banks.
probably you've already tried that one but i felt mentioning it anyway.
succes, greetings, sunny

[theroxy4]

HI Sunny,
I get a received dump of 2048 bytes for a program. received programs or banks still lock the A6 up when sent back.
Trying other programs but still no joy!

Thanks
theroxy4

[sunny pedaal]

when sending a program it seems to send the right amount ( maybe you can send me a patch or on the forum so i /we can see if it also locks our a6 up , otherwise:)
maybe a stupid question but did you try sending a dump to the a6 with only the midi in connected on your a6, otherwise a midiloop might cause the problem , which is avoided by this suggestion.

[theroxy4]

Yes, I am using just a single lead.
Here is a sound if you want to try it.
Thanks
theroxy4

---

M Caines Pad.syx
Description:	A work in progress	Download (listen)
Filename:	M Caines Pad.syx
Filesize:	2.29 KB
Downloaded:	531 Time(s)

---

[nickelodeus]

Hey roxy...
Out of interest ...where abouts are you in the uk ?
nic

[theroxy4]

Hi Nick,

My name is Dave and I live in Lincoln (for my sins!).
My first keyboard was a Gen SX1000, which my mum kindly bought for me while attempting to form a band at school. That was over 21 years ago. Then came booze and parties! Then, only three or four years ago I thought lets give that noise making another go! Now I have taken over the spare bedroom (much to my girlfriends disgust ) and can't stop dreaming of that next synth!
Sad stories aside, how are you getting on with your A6? Do you use any other synths?

theroxy4

[theroxy4]

Just found some more of your keys on another post!
Should keep my eyes open and my brain in gear!
theroxy4

[nickelodeus]

Nice to cyber-meet you....or whatever the proper term is!!

Believe it or not, my first synth was an sx1000 too...brilliant for helicopter noises!!

Yep, like yourself I'm just getting into my A6 really....its a very steep learning curve, I've never had anything analog that's this advanced/complicated.

The main thing i want to be able to do is create sounds to order...ie you hear a sound in your head/on a record/on another synth and then start with a blank patch on the andromeda and just build it from the ground up. The thing is that I don;t have enough experience with synthesis/sound design to do this yet....and I have a real problem understanding synthesis at a "grass-roots" level i.e when it gets really techie/mathmatical - which is often the depth of knowledge you need to accomplish these tasks.

Anyways...thats my ramble. I use all my stuff live and am more of a player than I am a programmer....but I always want the best sounds to play ...so its all very ambivalent!!

Nic

[theroxy4]

I'm planning to try to replicate some presets from my Pro 52 soft synth. I'm going to strip back the sounds to basics and build them up again, seeing how the sound evolves as I work from the basic OSC outputs adding mixer values and filtration. Making notes of changes as I build the sound back to the original preset values.
I think that setting up basic ADSR envelopes on the A6 will help me get to grips with how different sounds evolve quicker. I'm going back to basics with modulation, no effects and see if I can remember core programming skills I taught myself on a Juno at work years ago!
I will try to build myself some basic starting templates for differing sounds (bass, lead, pad etc.). Only when I think i've remembered the basics, will I delve into the more esoteric features of the A6. This is the plan!!
Or I might be lazy and carry on using the presets as templates! Or I could do both!
God do I need to get out more

[sunny pedaal]

just two little tips maybe:
1 check out the sound on sound website ( sos), there you'll find some good and understandable soundmaking workshop that ran for over years on how to make sounds on analog synth's:
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/allsynthsecrets.htm
2 wherever on the web or in your cupboard you find those manuals of old ( monophonic,analog) synth's , take them out and check specially the patchexamples given for that synth . trying to build from there also helped me to get a better understanding of what is needed to make a certain kind of sound i want ( and it's fun)
just my two penny's, sunny